pucklechurch

Thats one thing that doesn't make no sense to me, why would you move over to the UK????? from here? do people read the newspapers? do people realise how bad and expensive it's getting there? have people seen the price of gas? it makes absolutely no sense to me. I'm not saying America is the most perfect country in the world, cos it's not. But I think England is so much worse. It's like you really need some good luck.

Just to give a balance here. It makes total sense moving to the UK from the USA. I think Britain is preferable to the US as a place to live (house and rental prices are falling), a better place to work, bring up kids and have quality leisure time (that's a decent amount of paid days off work!!!). Banking, education and healthcare is inexpensive and you only need to moan about petrol prices if you drive 'American style' distances to go shopping. Most British folk will walk to friends houses or to the pub and even to work (or use public transport).

Yes.

I flew over with Henley a couple of years back. He had his shots and got a clean bill of health and his pet passport from our local vet in Oxford.

I phoned up United Airlines and they booked me a seat and Henley as 'excess baggage'. When I got to Heathrow I checked in and then checked him in at the excess baggage counter and he was taken away to be screened by security and I went through airside. When I boarded the plane Henley was already in there, I half expected him to be on his second complimentary champagne and being doted on by the female cabin crew but he was still in his Sherpa bag looking a bit nervous. He then sat on my lap in the bag for the flight to Chicago and upon arrival I showed my documentation and his pet passport without any problem, then had to carry him from T5 to T1 for another flight to Kansas City. The only major problem was the security at Chicago's T1 where I had to take him out of the Sherpa bag and walk with him through screening. He dug his claws into me and had a bit of a angry miaow!!

It was a certainty that my wife and I wanted Henley with us but I wouldn't look foward to travelling with pets again.

I have a couple of CD's with kids TV show themes on them.

There's something that gives a warm nostalgic feeling when I pull up to the Drive-Thru at Walgreens with the theme tune to 'Black Beauty' blasting out on my stereo. Now the Yanks missed out on that one, the very best TV theme tune ever and the best use of a timpani since Strauss wrote Also Sprach Zarathusa. The show that followed the music wasn't so good as I wasn't a horsy type, I prefered Rentaghost. In fact Rentaghost is well overdue for a big screen slightly more adult movie version!!!

Of course you can go private in the UK if you wish to pay and possibly get better treatment but my experience of the NHS has been perfectly good. I have had no problems with the British National Health service and neither has my bank manager. You can pay to be educated privately if you want to as well. If you have the money send your kids to Eton, Harrow or Winchester. If you want better health care and have money then do that as well. The choice is there.

In the US you pay and you pay a hell of a lot. Rich or poor. And if you are poor you can say goodbye to your savings if you have the misfortune to be involved in an accident.

It's funny how most civilised countries have national healthcare.

Tesco said from the outset that they were not going to be the UK store in the US and the stores and goods would be tailor for the US market.

That reminds me of when I pulled into a BP gas station in Kansas City and popped into the shop hoping to get a Ginster's Steak Slice and a Egg Custard.

Well at least when you get your SSN and learner's permit, the actual Missouri test will be a piece of cake. Just drive around your local Walmart parking lot in a huge pick up truck with a faded Bush/Cheney sticker on the bumper and a couple of dead deer tied up in the back. Aim for the closest parking spot near the entrance to the store and put your foot down and accelarate whilst using one hand to eat a half pound cheeseburger and the other hand to chat into your phone while listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd on the car stereo. If you get that coverted parking place next to the door of Walmart so you don't have to walk an unnecessary 2 feet 4 inches then you are given a Missouri Driver's License. That's how I got mine. I now drive a Toyota but 'Freebird' still gets played on my stereo now and again.

'Pack it in, Tucker'

When in Rome...A GOOD reason for tipping early in your night at the bar is the will be attentive and keep your drinks strong. Most states do not have specific measurements. It is worth the investment.

All you have to do is look the waiter in the eye, smile, and say, "Thank you, looks like we have everything. We'll give you a shout if we need anything." And I guarantee they won't come back until you wave them over.

On your first point, yes I will tip in bars if I'm staying there for awhile. That's what I said in my earlier post, just in case the bar staff take umbrage and decide to ignore me in a fit of pique, but on pub crawls/bar hops there is little point if you are just there for one drink.

However the idea of telling waiting staff that 'we have everything we need and that we'll call you over later if we want you' doesn't aways work, I've tried it. They tend to go off to their little waiter's waiting area to wait and lo! and behold if I just happen to accidentaly catch their eye they come bounding over to my table like a bloody lapdog with a resounding 'Yes, Sir, What is it? What would you like?'. Nothing, I was meerly looking around the room. I think a better system would be to place a large flag or semaphore signal on your table and raise it stoutly when you needed service from the employees.

True, very true. My gripe isn't with the staff who have to almost prostitute themselves to supplement their earnings, it's with the employers who force them to do this. My meal gets ruined by waiting staff buzzing around me like flies around dog's business and all the time it's for some restaurant owner to get his/her hands on some fat profit to live the 'American Dream' and open up a similar cafe in the next town, or something.

Yes, tipping in bars!!

So we pay your wages not your employer. No, not a chance. I'm not giving anyone a dollar for opening a bottle and putting it front of me. If I get served a meal and a few beers then I may tip but if I'm on a pub crawl, no way.

One other things that the Yanks do is constantly annoy me whilst I'm eating with the 'is everything all right' and 'do you need more of this or that' and 'can I get you a second helping of lard with your lardburger' etc. No. leave me alone and I'll simply call you if I want something. Instead of hovering around me looking for a tip just ####### off and do something useful like wash the dishes or guide cars into the parking lot correctly.

I am finding some things very strange here that I am not used to

They have driveup everything here,you barly need to get out of the car for anything.

If they had drive through supermarkets I bet the people would love it here LOL

yaeh, they even have drive thru pharmacies

The other day I even came across a Drive-Thru Gas Station. Whatever next?

Are the Yanks the only people on this planet who write their dates back to front?

One of my shocks was banking. At my local bank we have to pay for cheque books and they don't allow an overdraft. Back in England they practically threw chequebooks at you and gave you generous interest free overdrafts even if you saw your bank manager and simply looked down at your shoes and mumbled that you hadn't any money.

Yes, Branson would have been better. At least I could have got a job as a song-and-dance man. Straight over from Old Blighty, it's Jimmy Jingo and his five piece quartet!!

Other side of the coin for me.....

Didn't adjust very well and don't like living in the US at all. It's mainly to do with where we where, what I left behind and where we are now.

When I met my wife she'd come over to England to study and she met me in my line of work as a Tour Director and Guide. My life, therefore, was to take people to London, Paris, Dublin, Rome, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, etc as well as trips around the countryside to Bath, Canterbury, Stratford, etc. Every day, somewhere different, horseback riding in the Brecon Beacons or taking a cruise down the Rhine. When my wife finished her PhD and got a great job teaching at a university we moved.........to Missouri. To Boringsville, Blandstown, Dull City. The name's not worth mentioning because they are all the same. They've had their life sucked out of them by WalMart. The once-thriving downtown is now dead, save for a few charity shops, unappealing bars and the noise of the railroad. Travel 30 miles and its the same story in the next town and the next. We do have friendly folk but you don't walk past them in the street on your way to the corner shop to buy bread because that way of life has long since died, you speak to them on the phone or bump into them in a parking lot. One thing I'm happy with is that crime is non-existant which is a blessing and the sky seems always blue, but blue with a bitter cold wind in winter, colder than anywhere in the UK and blue with blisteringly unbearably hot temperatures in the summer. Take your choice, freeze or burn. What frightens me more is healthcare, Christ, break a finger and you could be bankrupt!!

Anyway, my wife has worked hard at school to get this job and I would never try and pull her away from it, nor would I suggest leaving our home or the animals we've rescued, so she stays in the Midwest and I spend months away working. The pound is strong so my earnings go along way. For now, I'm back taking groups to view Paris from Montmatre or sample Belgian beer and chocolate in Brugge. It was either that or work long hours in a carpet factory at the edge of town....urgh!!

I'll miss her but I'll fly back as often as I can, off season when its quiet I can always find a cheap flight, and we can have the summer together when she gets over to accompany me on my trips. I can think of worse ways to spend a few weeks in July and August!!

First of all, Harrods is Awesome!, and you can get an all day Tube/Bus ticket from around 8 - 12 pounds. As long as it is Zones 1 and 2 (which is most of the touristy places anyway.

One Day Travelcard. Used to retail for about 6 pounds (a year ago, may be more now) after 9.30am. Valid on all transport within zones 1-4.

Mags is nearer the mark. A one day travelcard for zones 1 and 2 (which is all you'll need) after 9.30am weekdays and all day at weekends is £5.10.

Her mum was 101, Queen E has some time left, much to Prince Charles' dismay....

Her Mum was Queen Consort and not Queen in her own right so Queen Elizabeth II has now achieved the above, and I'm sure that most of her subjects from the eskimo in his skin canoe out in the frozen wastes of Canada to the heathen savage in the jungles of the equator will join me in toasting Her Majesty and wishing her the best of health, long to reign over our illustrious Empire.

Anglo-Pacific mailed three 30kg boxes from Manchester to Kansas City in March 07 and it arrived in mid August, alot longer than they first suggested. I was also told to pay an additional charge to get them moved from the dockside in New York. I was asked to pay this after a call in late May wondering where my stuff was. The reason for the delay, according to AngloPacific, was that customs were taking a long time checking over the crate my stuff was in, in addition I should have been told when I first paid for the delivery that I would also have to pay more to have it taken from the port of entry to my house. In hindsight I should have paid the extra and had it flown there!! Or used another company.

They just need to bleep out the word where Kirsty MacColl calls Shane MacGowan 'handsome' and I'll be happy.

BBC America? Unusual choice Devilette

Apart from liberal doses of BBC stuff, BBC America also shows stuff formerly on ITV or Channel 5.

Alot of PBS stations will show re-runs of Are You Being Served? and Keeping Up Appearences plus a few costume dramas normally the preserve of BBC Sunday evenings. The Biography Channel sometimes shows Midsomer Murders and Inspector Morse, the SciFi channel shows Doctor Who and the History Channel and History International will generally wheel out some dig with Tony Robinson or the life of a Tudor monarch as presented by Simon Schama or David Starkey. The father and son team of Dan and Peter Snow also appear on the History Channel using computer graphics to show how the British army defeated the French/Germans/Spanish/Dutch (delete as appropriate) on their Battlefield Detectives show. Watch out for the Teletubbies and Thomas the Tank Engine (with Yank voice overs) on kids channels. Besides showing poker, the The Travel Channel does show a few UK related holiday shows. The Discovery Times channel will often show documentaries on London, be it the adequacy of it's flood defences or how the Underground railways work and finally if the National Geographic channel isn't showing a whale documentary narrated by Leonard Nimoy, it may well show Seconds From Disaster which 50% of the time is some dreadful mishap on one of Britain's railways or airlines.

I'm not sure, probably all water under the bridge after all 1812 was a long time ago, a year of British defeat but on the other side of the world the tide was turning for Emperor Napoleon as well. I'd wager the French may feel a little unconfortable about Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture if it were ever played to them, after all some of them get upset about defeat, remember the anger about trains from Paris arriving at London "Waterloo". There is, of course, no truth in the rumour than Eurostar trains that now arrive at St Pancras, will be arriving at a station soon to be re-named Crecy or Agincourt!!

Sorry John, next time you whistle the tune to the Star Spangled Banner you'll be whistling the work of a Gloucester-born Westminster Abbey church organist and composer John Stafford Smith and when I wrote that the Yanks adapted this some 75 years later, the adaptation was to changed the lyrics and add different words, namely Scott Key's poem.

I remember being in a bar and asking for Nachos and was promptly thrown a box of matches.

Those of us from England would do well to remember dear old John Stafford Smith who unknowingly wrote the music to the Star Spangled Banner. Actually he was writing the words and melody to a drinking song for the Anacreontic Society in London. At this point he was barely out of his teens!! This very British song, as indigenous to the people of our country as cucumber sandwiches and games of cricket, was meerly adapted by the Yanks some 75 years later.

So when the Americans raise their flag and strike up their anthem it would be nice to recall 'To Anacreon in Heaven' and sing of wine and good company, spirit oneself away from the cheerleeders and glitz and harken back to the gout-ridden smokey environs of an 18th century British Gentlemen's Club.

This is what it means and if it does not mean that to you then this is not the country for you and you are hear for less then genuine reasons.

Utter twaddle. Many people have reasons to be in the US but I don't think we all want to join their military and fight against our former homes and countries just so Don Luce can relax in the belief that we are no longer here for 'less than genuine' reasons!!

He went 5 months without driving. He learned to use the bus and light rail systems to get around. And he walked a lot.

Bus and light rail systems? You were lucky. Until I got my licence I was 'the only pedestrian in the village' and certainly the only one walking up to the drive-through ATMs, loitering behind cars waiving my card around to show what I was intending to do.